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Free 2019-2020 Year Round Homeschool Planning Form (Hummingbird Color)

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have the first color choice for the 2019 to 2020 Year Round Homeschool Planning form and I named this color scheme hummingbird. Long range planning is key to sticking to homeschool, so I know you’ll love getting this first color choice so early.

Remember that I create both academic and planning calendars. Although they may seem similar, they are not.

Free 2019-2020 Year Round Homeschool Planning Form (Hummingbird Color). I have the first color choice for the 2019 to 2020 Year Round Homeschool Planning form and I named this color scheme hummingbird. Long range planning is key to sticking to homeschool, so I know you'll love getting this first color choice early. CLICK HERE to grab this FREE homeschool planning form!

When you take a closer look, you’ll see that each calendar has a different purpose. The form today is for you to PLAN your school year and track the number of days and weeks your kids are doing school.

I have all 12 months on one page which means you can start on any month that you begin homeschooling and move forward to plan your year.

Plain calendars (okay, they are not so plain) are just for noting dates and for your reference. I don’t create them to write appointments on them OR to track your school.

Free Curriculum Planner Pages

Plain calendars are always on Step. 2. Choose Calendars/Appointment Keepers. The 2 page spread appointment keepers are for appointments and have more room for writing.

The form today is to plan your homeschool year with days off, teacher planning days and holidays to take off. It gives you a glimpse of your homeschool year. Plan and track your school year on it.

Because this form is not a calendar but more of a planning tool, I keep it each year at Step 5a. Choose Unique forms JUST for You!

If you need to see how to use it go to that step Step 5a. Choose Unique forms JUST for You! to look at my sample copy.

This form today is NOT the 2 page spread calendar. You can grab that too.

step-2-of-the-7-step-free-homeschool-planner-tinas-dynamic-homeschool-plus

Download here free (Hummingbird Option) 2019 to 2020 Year Round Homeschool Planning Form.

7 Easy Steps – “Tons of Options & Pretty Color” Begin building your planner

Step 1. Choose a Pretty Front/Back Cover

Step. 2. Choose Calendars/Appointment Keepers

Step 3. Choose Goals/Objectivesur

Step 4. Choose Lesson Planning Pages Right For You!

Step 5a. Choose Unique forms JUST for You! Not a kazillion other people

Step 5b. Choose MORE Unique Forms JUST for You!

Step 5c. Choose MORE MORE Unique Forms Just for You!

Step 6. Personalize It

Step 7. Bind it! Love it!

Hugs and love ya,

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

One important mathematical concept kids run into sometime in middle school or high school is the Pythagorean Theorem. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips

Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was born around 569 BCE is credited with the discovery.

The Pythagorean Theorem is that theorem you probably remember from your own middle school and high school years: a² + b² = c². Today we’re going to teach our kids the theorem with a hands-on activity!

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem. One important mathematical concept kids run into sometime in middle school or high school is the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was born around 569 BCE is credited with the discovery. Click here to do this EASY hands-on activity!

But first let’s take a look at what a mathematical theorem is.

Hands-On Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

A mathematical theorem is a statement that can be shown to be true by accepted mathematical operations.

This means you can’t just make up a proof and say it works. You have to use logic, reasoning, and accepted mathematical operations to show the theorem is true. Today we’ll be using squares and areas to show the Pythagorean Theorem is true.

So what exactly is the Pythagorean Theorem?

Pythagorean Theorem: The square of a square drawn on the hypotenuse of a right triangle equals the sum of the areas of the squares drawn on the other two sides.

Put another way: a² + b² = c².

In other words. If you have a right angle and measure each side, the square of side a plus the square of side b is equal to the square of the long slope we call the hypotenuse.

What You Need for This Activity:

  • Graph Paper
  • Ruler
  • Scissors
  • Pen

Directions
According to the Pythagorean Theorem, if I draw a right triangle, the square of the two sides added together will equal the square of the hypotenuse. Let’s see if this actually works!

Step 1: Pull out your graph paper and draw a right triangle on it. I’m going to use sides with the length of 3 boxes and 4 boxes.

Pythagorean Theorem for Kids

Step 2: Measure the hypotenuse.

Easy Pythagorean Theorem Lesson

Step 3: Remember square of a number is the area of a square with that length of side. So I’m now going to draw and cut out my squares. One square will have sides the length of 2 squares on the graph paper. One square will have sides the length of 3 squares, while the third will have the length I measured!

To make the next step more clear I’m going to highlight the squares in different colors. The small one will be yellow. The medium will be green. And the large one will be blue.

Simple Pythagorean Theorem Activity

Step 4: Let’s see if the area of the two small triangles will equal the area of the large triangle! We’re going to do this by laying the medium square on top of the large square.

Pythagorean Theorem Lesson for Kids

Now you have a choice. If you count the squares left over on the large triangle, you’ll notice there are 9 squares. And what’s 3²? 9! Or you can do what I did and cut the square to fit the left over area.

Pythagorean Theorem Hands On Activity

As you can see, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides. The Pythagorean Theorem works!


Now let’s run through all 4 steps again with different numbers. This time I’m going to use sides with lengths of 6 and 8.

Step 1: Again we create the right triangle.

Teaching the Pythagorean Theorem to Kids

Step 2: Now measure the hypotenuse.

Measuring Triangles with Kids

Step 3: Create the squares.

Easy Way to Teach the Pythagorean Theorem to Kids

Step 4: Do the squares of the sides equal the square of the hypotenuse? The highlighter caused the sides of my squares to curl, so I used a touch of tape to force the squares to lie flat. Even so, as you can see the answer is yes!

Showing Kids the Pythagorean Theorem
Teaching the Pythagorean Theorem for Homeschoolers

Try the activity yourself using varying lengths for the sides.

No matter what the length of the sides of your right triangle, you’ll discover the squares always equal the square of the hypotenuse or a² + b² = c².

You’ve shown the Pythagorean Theorem works!

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem. One important mathematical concept kids run into sometime in middle school or high school is the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was born around 569 BCE is credited with the discovery. Click here to do this EASY hands-on activity!

Written by Sara at Classically Homeschooling.

So what lengths did you use for your right triangles?

Teach math with these other fun homeschool activities!

Why Buying Curriculum Won’t Make You a Homeschooler (But What Will)

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

You should have seen it! It was the newest hyper speed printer you’ve ever seen in a homeschool household. I kept it busy night and day printing hefty 3-inch binders full of every subject I could dream of to teach my then preschoolers. At the end of three months when it was time to start my first official day of homeschool, I was already burned out. Buying curriculum and printing everything I could find on the internet didn’t anymore make a homeschooler than buying my son’s first car made him an experienced driver.

You couldn’t have convinced me then that unless I had purchased curriculum, I wasn’t a full member of the national unified happy homeschoolers society. (No, there is no such club.)

So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler, Uh

Instead of focusing on buying curriculum, which is only part of the homeschool puzzle, I should’ve been educating myself on homeschool approaches, my definition of education, and trusting a child’s natural bent to learn.

Why Buying Curriculum Won't Make You a Homeschooler (But What Will)

Curriculum seems to be the hallmark of identifying yourself as a homeschooler. While it’s important to have curriculum, I’v learned that:

  • curriculum doesn’t really teach anything,
  • you need very little to get started,
  • focusing on the three Rs – reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic is the starting point,
  • subjects like history, geography, art, and science can wait for a for while as you focus on the three Rs,
  • understanding what is the homeschool lifestyle is of much more importance, and
  • understanding what is NOT homeschooling is just as important as calling yourself a homeschooler.

How to Instantly Become a Homeschooler

You don’t have to wait long to become a homeschooler. It’s not buying curriculum that advances you; it is about adopting ideas from the homeschool lifestyle.

One common weave of all successful homeschoolers is that they think out of the box. Determined to not follow the same method of teaching that wasn’t working in public school, a true homeschooler takes time to know her children first. Then, she finds curriculum to meet her needs. She doesn’t buy curriculum then make her family adjust to it.

True homeschoolers appreciate quickly that:

  • they’re free to choose when and how they learn,
  • they can set their own deadlines,
  • more emphasis can be given to their child’s interests,
  • lessons can be short and still be rigorous,
  • kids are encouraged to be problem solvers and independent thinkers,
  • the day and lesson plans can be flexible,
  • traveling is part of the homeschool lifestyle and
  • that kids do learn by living.

Although we say it all the time, a true homeschooler takes time to understand how curriculum is a tool. A tool can wield great power and hurt others if the user does not know how to use it well.  Like any dangerous tool in our home, we take time to read the instructions well and take great care when using any tools around our kids.

However. new homeschoolers pick up curriculum and command it with such force and that if their kids have trouble, they question first the child instead of the homeschool approach or curriculum. When completing curriculum is set up as the absolute measure of a child’s progress instead of measuring progress individually, a child could be left feeling worthless.

Unintentionally, the harm at home may become worse than what was going on in public school.

Like any tool, sometimes it needs to be used longer, other times it needs to be put down. It reminds me of baking bread. At times, I need to use my kitchen tools and other times I put it away and use my hands. Using my hands is the only way I can tell how well the dough mixed and the consistency of it.

Teaching is the same. If we never take a hands-on approach to our child’s learning, learn to put down the curriculum and change things in the curriculum fit our child, we will never have a pulse for how our child is advancing. Homeschooling will be a struggle from the start and stay hard period.

Use free online curriculum like Easy Peasy All In One to find a true starting point for buying curriculum. I know some homeschoolers who use Easy Peasy primarily and supplement it. Personally, I prefer to buy curriculum and supplement with free curriculum because I want to hand pick curriculum that is unique to each child’s strength.

Also, true homeschoolers avoid the thinking that all of their kids have to use the same math or language arts program. One sanity saving tip is for your kids to learn together. However, you’ll want to take time to understand which subjects can easily be taught together and which subjects are best learned separately. Look at the tips here on my post Skill Subjects vs. Content Subjects: What’s the Difference.

Besides using free curriculum and free online tests to gauge a starting point, a seasoned homeschooler includes her child’s interest as part of her curriculum. When a child comes from public school they’ve been taught to take a passive approach to learning. In otherwords, the teacher dictated the lesson plans and subjects.


Although a child may have been a good public school student, had excellent grades, and be responsible, he was not a partner in lesson making. This concept may seem offensive to the average public school teacher. To a homeschool mom, the concept of including a child in what interests him and how he learns is the first step to independent learning. We’ve learned that an obedient child doesn’t always equal a child interested in learning lifelong. It just means they learned to do what was necessary to get by or to have good grades.

Intrinsic learning happens by independent learning. By giving choices to our kids, we seem them as a partner to their learning and not a passive bystander.

My bountiful binders full of printing material cost me a fortune to print and cost more in stress. Only doing a handful of the worksheets, I learned quickly that preschoolers learn best by doing and not by all the school-ish things I had got ready. Thankfully, my misguided exuberance didn’t mess my sons up for life.

Why Buying Curriculum Won't Make You a Homeschooler (But What Will). You should have seen it! It was the newest hyper speed printer you've ever seen in a homeschool household. I kept it busy night and day printing hefty 3-inch binders full of every subject I could dream of to teach my then preschoolers. At the end of three months when it was time to start my first official day of homeschool, I was already burned out. Buying curriculum and printing everything I could find on the internet didn't anymore make a homeschooler than buying my son's first car made him an experienced driver. Click here to read how to become a homeschooler!

I had time to change my attitude to appreciate that buying curriculum did not a homeschooler make.Have you made the same mistake?

Look at these other tips you’ll love:

Hugs and love ya,

Hands-On Science: Handprint and Fingerprint Activity

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

What better way to celebrate the uniqueness of our skin than to learn more about our unique fingerprints and palm prints? Fingerprint science and palm print science is easy.

(The truth is, this activity can easily be completed as a fun scientific study, completely independent of the human body. It stands alone as its own little mini-unit.)

As part of our study of the human body, we began a unit on organ systems this month. My son was shocked to learn that the body’s largest organ is our skin!

After spending some time learning basic facts about our skin, I decided it was time for a little extra, hands-on fun.

Hands-On Science: Handprint and Fingerprint Activity. What better way to celebrate the uniqueness of our skin than to learn more about our unique fingerprints and palm prints? CLICK HERE to grab the free printable and do this fun hands-on activity!

Hands-On Science: Fingerprint and Palm Print Study

What you’ll need for this activity:

Fingerprint Collection and Observation

Because my son was excited to get started with the messy part, we began with the fingerprint collection and observation portion of the activity.

Here’s how we got one of his thumbprints to observe:

Scribble back and forth with a pencil on the index card or cardstock. You should do this until there is a thick layer of pencil on the sheet.

Learning about Fingerprints

Have your child firmly place his thumb onto the pencil markings, being careful not to move once his thumb is on the card.

The Basement Workshop Store

Once your child has carefully lifted his thumb off the penciled area, take a piece of tape and stick it to the “dirty” area of your child’s thumb.

Making Fingerprints with Kids

Carefully lift off the tape and stick it to the appropriate area on the Fingerprint Study Notebooking Page.

Examining Fingerprints with Kids

Once the tape is affixed to the white backdrop of the page, your child will easily be able to observe and discuss her findings.

Interesting Facts We Learned About Fingerprints

  • Fingerprints stay the same over our lifetime, no matter how much our fingers grow.
  • The only way to change a fingerprint is through surgery, injury or diseases of the skin.
  • No two fingerprints have ever been found alike in many billions of human and automated computer comparisons.
  • Even with the discovery of DNA, fingerprints remain the primary source of criminal identification around the world.
  • The first noted examples of fingerprints being used for identification are from Ancient Rome. Fingerprints were used in business transactions, the way we use signatures today.

Palm Print Tracing and Observation

Depending on your child’s stamina, this portion of the activity can be done the same day as the fingerprint study, or completed later in the week.

Hands-On Handprint Science Activity

Trace your child’s hand in the labeled section of the Palm Print Study Notebooking Page.

Have your child observe and record (draw) the lines they see on their actual palm, on the traced version.

Fingerprint Science Activity

Observe, discuss and record your findings.

Interesting Facts We Learned About Palm Prints

  • Palm prints were used in Ancient China as part of crime scene investigation as early as 200 BC.
  • Palm prints are as unique as fingerprints when the entire palm is able to be studied and analyzed.
  • Moms love having their baby’s handprints from when they are born. (My son included this one!)
Hands-On Science: Handprint and Fingerprint Activity. What better way to celebrate the uniqueness of our skin than to learn more about our unique fingerprints and palm prints? CLICK HERE to grab the free printable and do this fun hands-on activity!

Overall, this activity produced a ton of conversation between my son and I, both about the science of skin and the forensic science behind crime scene investigations. This activity can be scaled back for younger learners, but as is, it worked perfectly for my 12-year old.

Looking for more fun science activities? Try these hands-on lessons!

 

Deschooling: Step One for the New Homeschooler (the Definitions, the Dangers, and the Delight)

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Take the kids out of public school one day, begin homeschooling the next day; it’s a common rookie mistake. And it seems almost impossible to change to a relaxed mindset when you jump from one stressful situation into another one. Deschooling is the first step for any new homeschool family.

Public school kids turned homeschooled kids are not the only ones that  benefit from a deschooling process. Parents who’ve never sent their kids to public school need a deschooling period and need to resist the challenge of beginning public school at home.

How to Shove Back at the Rigidity of Public School

Newbies who follow a deschooling process minimize beginner’s stress and maximize the best beginner’s moments and have good memories for a lifetime.

Homeschoolers, on the other hand, who take no time to understand and implement a plan for the transitional period can set themselves up for a hard road. There are a few guidelines you’ll want to follow.

Start with the basics first. Look the definitions below and then I’m sharing the dangers and how to make this time period a delight.

Deschooling Defined – And No It’s Not Unschooling

Deschooling is a process and unschooling is a homeschool approach.

Regardless of which homeschool approach, i.e. classical, unschooling, unit studies, or Charlotte Mason you follow, deschooling is the first step.

Definitions vary, but most of them include these critical pieces of information.

Deschooling is a period of time when all family members rest both physically and mentally from a public school lifestyle. Resting is the first phase. Even if you have a child that has never attended public school, it’s about defining your understanding of what is homeschooling.

It’s the time to unlearn what you think education should be as taught from a public school mindset and to be open to new, natural, and creative ways to teach your kids.

It’s realizing that taking your kids out of school one day and doing the exact thing at home  the next day that wasn’t working in public school is the definition of insanity (ouch).

It’s letting go and letting in something new in your life; it’s accepting the homeschool lifestyle which is opposite of the public school lifestyle.

It’s having humility to start over learning a new educational approach. More important, it means taking time to get to know your child unlike you have before when he was away from you for eight hours.

Moving away from focusing just on curriculum and focusing on the needs first of your family is at the core of the process.

Embracing tears and fears and excitement and eagerness all at once is the norm. It’s not just filtering and embracing raw emotions, but it’s being active in learning everything about how to homeschool.

During the deschooling process, some families take a much needed family vacation, others fill their days with trips to the museum, to the beach, to the library and try to learn another pace.

How to Determine the Length of Deschooling

What to do during the relaxation period and how long to deschool varies for each family, ages of your kids, and circumstances. One rule of thumb says that for every year the child is in public school take off a month.

That may seem excessive to some, but my experience has been it’s pretty close.

During the deschooling period, it does not mean a family is not learning. It does mean they’re learning in a relaxed pace set to the rhythm of the family.

It doesn’t mean rigidity; it does mean routine. Throwing all caution to the wind is not the purpose of deschooling.

In helping many new homeschoolers to transition to the homeschool lifestyle, I know that older children feel more comfortable with a routine pretty quickly. Just don’t saddle them with many worksheets and subjects while you’re investigating together what they want to learn.

A transitional period requires time to allow each member of the family time to unlearn old ways of learning and focus on the interests of each kid.

This also includes you. Stepping back and analyzing what type of teacher you want to be and assessing what are the current needs of each child takes time and you have it.

Part of the deschooling process is not feeling hurried to keep pace of public school to begin in August and end in May.

Many states have relaxed homeschool laws and you have time to start up your school year. Too, as you’ll learn, most homeschool families have a formal start and stop to their year,  but we also know that learning takes place naturally pretty well everyday. There are many opportunities to learn that don’t have to be scheduled.

The longer the child has been in public school, the longer it takes.

It’s true too that sometimes it’s harder to take the public school mentality out of the parents than it is to take it out of the kids. Like any other significant change in your life, a job change, adding a newborn to your family, or moving, you can’t fast forward the deschooling or adjustment period. It takes time.

Activities for a Meaningful Deschooling Period 

How active or not a family is when they’ve stepped off the public school treadmill varies according to each circumstance.

If your child has been bullied and you’ve fought daily for him at school, you’ll want more time at home healing and being together. If you have a young child that has not been in public school too long, but long enough to be bored, you may want to find local classes for him to join.

Like I mentioned before, deschooling is a relaxed pace or process and it doesn’t mean a state of nothingness. You want to take back the control of teaching and start by feeding your children’s desire to learn subjects or do activities that interests them.

Rekindle the spark of learning and that doesn’t happen by throwing a workbook at a kid or putting them in front of a computer. It just doesn’t.

Kids need you, they need their family, and they need to take ownership of their learning. Start by asking them what they want to learn. Then, research it on the computer or go to the library – together.

Field trips, zoos, living history reenactments, and museums have a way of igniting that dwindling spark.

Activities don’t have to be expensive. A walk on the beach, a trip the local nature reserve, camping together as a family, taking an art class together, taking a cooking class, going to the movies, trips to the library, lounging around reading stories that interests your children, craft time, and park time are just a very few possibilities all now opened to your family.

When Are You Finally Cured of the Public School Mindset?

There is probably not a time that you won’t think about public school because we’re infected by the educational madness and unbalanced view of how much time it really takes to teach a child.

But there does come a time when you see all family members naturally putting their needs and wants for learning ahead of popular opinion on what a child needs to learn.

We all know kids need the three Rs – reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. Beyond the core subjects, the rest of what we learn and how we learn it is subjective.

To illustrate: A relaxed homeschool educator knows that learning how to write (a core subject) mixed with reading a history story or doing a hands-on science activity (the fun subjects) makes learning meaningful.

While the core subjects are absolutely essential, it’s valuable to teach them only to the extent they’re practical, useful, and make learning come alive.

When that method for teaching a child is followed year after year, you win over your child as a partner to his learning.

Instead of being passive learners, they’re an active participant in it. Therein lies the subtle, but significant difference between spoon feeding a child to high school ( not recommended and won’t work) and gently guiding your child’s love for learning.

Are You Bulldozing Ahead to Deschooling Danger?

Most all homeschool families have and want rigorous academic standards, but not all of them have abandoned the archaic ways of the past like torture and confinement. Just kidding, although some days I wonder when I read how parents charge ahead to purchase curriculum as if curriculum infuses what was lost at public school.

Curriculum is just one piece of the homeschooling puzzle.

It’s so much easier throwing a workbook at your child than it is to jump in and determine the best learning approach for him, the best schedule, and how to determine the order of the subjects.  I’m not saying we can’t start by using workbooks, but it has to be a tool and not the teacher.

Jumping from one stressful situation in public school to another stressful situation at home equals a great big ole’ heap of unneeded stress.

It’s not a waste of time to step back, relax, and read about homeschooling while learning together.

Deschooling Resources

Look at some of these resources that will help you to deschool.

If you’ll thoroughly grasp the homeschool laws of where you live, fold in family activities that suit your family, begin slowly, read everything you can read while you start slow, you’ll avoid a unrecoverable crash and burn.

Telling you that you won’t have problems or burn out is untruthful.

Deschooling: Step One for the New Homeschooler (the Definitions, the Dangers, and the Delight). Take the kids out of public school one day, begin homeschooling the next day; it's a common rookie mistake. And it seems almost impossible to change to a relaxed mindset when you jump from one stressful situation into another one. Deschooling is the first step for any new homeschool family. CLICK HERE to grab these AWESOME tips from a seasoned veteran!

I’m telling you that you’ll need many times to come back to deschooling to get readjusted and then your journey will be memorable for the right reasons.Do you have any questions about deschooling?

Also, you’ll love these other helps:

Hugs and love ya,